A long-standing problem that has frustrated anyone seeking to identify an unknown plant specimen using traditional resources is the inability to simply and accurately identify the plant species and its genus based on the specimen's physical traits. As identification is necessary to plant selection (for example, in landscape design), these same frustrations apply to the plant selection process as well.
Presently, there are limited methods for identifying a plant species and sorting through plant data. One common method of identifying a plant species includes the use of the internet to search through various electronic databases. However, websites containing these relatively limited databases are generally designed to provide information relating to a known species of a plant, and therefore, one must have prior knowledge of the species in order to use the databases effectively. For a novice who is unfamiliar with plant identification or botanical terminology, there are many obstacles for searching the database. Therefore, without the knowledge of additional botanical terms beyond the simple description of a plant specimen, such as a leaf or a flower, it may be difficult to perform an effective search in order to sort through plant data and to identify the plant genus or the plant species for any purpose.
Another common method of identifying a plant is with the use of literary sources, such as texts and encyclopedia that document various plant species. Although the publications may include pictures, photographs and descriptions of a plant, there are no systematic documentations or procedures established among the publications.
Similarly, there exists various methods, apparatus and systems for uniquely identifying human individuals by their particular physical characteristics, such as the individual's unique finger prints, palm prints, iris, facial features, or combinations thereof. For example, particular facial parameters such as the distances between identifiable points on the human face, and/or ratios of the facial parameters may be used to identify an individual as the parameters for each individual are unique. Particular parameters such as the distance between the eye pupils, the distance from each eye pupil to the nose bottom and to the mouth center, and the distance from the nose bottom to the mouth center are set forth. The technologies have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,969 and references cited therein.
In addition, methods known in the art for identifying or selecting plants meeting variously user-desired characteristics are also particularly lacking. None of the known systems for plant identification or plant selection provides an optimized or unified system for identifying or selecting plant species. Many plant selection tools cover a very limited number of plants such as the inventory of a particular vendor. All are limited by the inadequacies of the database on which they are based as outlined above. Among those print resources that have larger databases such as The American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Plants & Flowers (DK Publishing, New York, 2002) or the Sunset Western Garden Book (Sunset Publishing, Menlo Park, Calif., 2001), the plant selectors are limited to lists of plants that satisfy a particular need sorted coarsely by other attributes. For example, in the Encyclopedia of Plants & Flowers, the user might select “plants for sandy soil,” sorted by plant type [tree, perennial, etc.], with additional symbols identifying some limited addition traits. In the Western Garden Book, the user might select “garden trees,” sorted by general application and type [such as “deciduous patio tree”] and find a list with additional symbols identifying preferred light and growing zone.
Computer-based plant selectors also exist such as Flora (Global Book Publishing, NSW, Australia, 2003). This CD-based tool allows plant selection from a limited database of 20,000 plants based on a limited number of attributes (eight: plant group, use, hardiness zone, height, “award plant,” “position” [sun, half. sun, shade], flower color, flower season). While it contains some plant images, images are not used as part of the selection process.
Thus, all prior art plant selectors suffer from being incomplete, having inconsistent plant descriptions and inconsistent images, and being generally “floral-centric” (focusing on flowers rather than vegetative features of plants). Neither the text-based nor the visual systems available enables a blind search within the potential vegetative inventory and cannot be easily used to manage information. This inability has created a deficiency in the industry and the industry has responded to this deficiency by actively limiting the diversity of plants in cultivation at any one time. It is estimated that only 3% of the potential inventory is available at any one time, and the available market has become constricted. Therefore, there is a need for establishing a systematic method for compiling a comprehensive and consistent database of plant species to assist in the identification and/or selection of plants for both novices and experts in the field. There is also a need for a plant selection tool that can be easily used by a novice and experienced users alike to select plants from the database.